Summer in Brazil: Exploring Beyond Perdizes
It’s currently 4 p.m., and I’m sitting on the beach in the city of Santos, enjoying the warmth of the sun and listening to the waves. Although Santos is still located within the state of São Paulo, it feels like a completely different world from the bustling city of São Paulo. The trip here took about an hour and a half by bus, but we had to wake up early, at 6:30 a.m., to make it to our 8 a.m. bus. The bus travel itself was beautiful, passing through tunnels and mountain routes with green landscapes.
As soon as we arrived in Santos, I could immediately sense the contrast in lifestyle. Being a coastal city, everything here opens later, and the pace of life seems far more relaxed compared to the constant motion of São Paulo. Despite it being technically winter, the temperature reached an amazing 80°F, and the beach was filled with people enjoying the sun. One of the most unique parts of the beach experience here is the view. While swimming, you can see beautiful mountains in the distance, something I never experienced back home in Miami. It was the perfect day trip with friends, especially after a few cold and cloudy days in São Paulo.
Beyond this weekend beach trip, this week also included another incredible experience outside the city limits. On Wednesday, June 18th, CET took us on a field trip to visit an indigenous Guarani village. This trip allowed us to step outside of the urban environment and learn directly from people who have preserved their ancestral traditions and ways of life. We arrived at the village around 10 a.m. and were immediately welcomed with warmth and open arms. They had prepared a delicious breakfast for us, and from the very start, it was clear that community was a central value for them.
After breakfast, we were given a tour of the village and learned about the Guarani’s use of traditional medicine, their agricultural practices, and their spiritual beliefs. It was fascinating to hear how deeply connected they are to nature and how much of their lives are shaped by spirituality. They taught us the importance of traditional medicine using herbs. One of the women that were with us all day, Ara, told us that medicine is only taught within the family and that she was in the process of being taught by her grandmother how to treat people. Something else that stuck out to me in comparison to Western culture is the sense of community these people had. They all grow food together as a village and everyone plays a role to help better their community. They participate in meetings as a community and perform spiritual practices all together. There are a few spiritual guides within the village who help the members of the community when they are sick or are in need of help. Ara even told us the story of how a spiritual guide helped her sick son. The guide discovered that her son was having a spiritual calling and needed to be renamed after 17 years of going by another name that had been given to him at birth. Around lunchtime, we returned to the home of a woman named Sandra, where a massive meal was waiting for us, rice, beans, salad, sausage, and fish all prepared fresh. Later in the afternoon, Ara taught us how to make traditional earrings, and we each crafted a pair to take home. The day ended with deep conversations and another delicious meal for dinner.
Saying goodbye was difficult. The Guarani people were not only kind and generous but also deeply knowledgeable. I feel incredibly grateful to have spent time in their community and hope to carry their values with me throughout the course of my life.
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Summer in Brazil is a 6-week summer program sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Vanderbilt University. It caters to graduate and undergraduate students who wish to achieve a high-level of Portuguese fluency through immersion in Brazilian culture.
You can learn more about our Summer in Latin America programs here.
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